Storage gateway provisioning and configuring

• US 7,990,994 B1
• Filed: 10/22/2005
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Habanero Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Bhasin, Harinder Singh, Yeh, Jia-Jen, Abou-Emara, Akram A., Chidambaram, Sriram, Gandhi, Shreyas P., Saraiya, Nakul Pratap, Youngworth, Christopher Dean
• Primary Examiner(s): Ryman, Daniel J
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBERTS, BRIAN S
• Application Number:
  US11/256,646
• Time in Patent Office: 2,110 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/431
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272

Abstract

Storage gateway provisioning, configuration, and management functions provide mechanisms to specify and manage parameters and operations associated with storage gateways. The parameters may include any combination of VLAN topology, zoning behavior, LUN masking, bandwidth, and priority. The parameters may also include path information describing initiator to target associations, enabling load-balancing aggregations and multipathing redundancy. Parameters may be specified at relatively low-levels, describing specific HW elements, or may be specified at relatively high-levels, describing desired bandwidth and redundancy requirements, with SW determining low-level HW assignments. Configuration and management functions enable dynamic modification of storage gateway parameters (such as bandwidth between selected initiator and target pairs). Management functions also enable dynamic switchover from a primary path to a secondary path with respect to a storage device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

programmatically determining a plurality of host bus adapter channels required to meet a list of storage interface requirements, including computing how many host bus adapter channels are needed and associated bandwidths;

programmatically computing a respective plurality of operational parameters for each of the host bus adapter channels;

programmatically identifying a plurality of storage interfaces to implement the determined number of host bus adapter channels;

programmatically computing mode information to configure the storage interfaces according to the respective pluralities of operational parameters;

configuring and operating the storage interfaces in accordance with the respective pluralities of operational parameters;

and wherein the storage interfaces are accessible by a plurality of processes executing on a plurality of physical partitions of a physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessor, each physical partition comprising links between processors of the physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessor, the links being programmatically configurable to selectively isolate subsets of the processors with respect to respective shared memory coherency and cache memory coherency transactions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of storage requirements comprises at least one of a security requirement and a quality of service requirement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational parameters comprise at least one of a security parameter and a quality of service parameter.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the security parameter comprises at least one of a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier, an internal zone specification;

and a storage volume access parameter.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the internal zone specification identifies at least one of the storage interfaces and at least one storage device coupled to the identified storage interface.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the storage volume access parameter identifies a group of Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage interfaces are enabled for coupling to a storage device, the storage device being at least one of a disk drive, a tape drive, a tape library, a storage array, a storage switch, a storage director, a storage router, a storage network, and a storage area network (SAN).

8. A method comprising:

manually determining a plurality of host bus adapter channels required to meet a list of storage interface requirements, including computing how many host bus adapter channels are needed and associated bandwidths;

manually computing a respective plurality of operational parameters for each of the host bus adapter channels;

programmatically identifying a plurality of storage interfaces to implement the determined number of host bus adapter channels;

programmatically computing mode information to configure the storage interfaces according to the respective pluralities of operational parameters;

configuring and operating the storage interfaces in accordance with the respective pluralities of operational parameters;

and wherein the storage interfaces are accessible by a plurality of processes executing on a plurality of physical partitions of a physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessor, each physical partition comprising links between processors of the physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessor, the links being programmatically configurable to selectively isolate subsets of the processors with respect to respective shared memory coherency and cache memory coherency transactions.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the list of storage requirements comprises at least one of a security requirement and a quality of service requirement.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the operational parameters comprise at least one of a security parameter and a quality of service parameter.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the security parameter comprises at least one of a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier, an internal zone specification;

and a storage volume access parameter.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the internal zone specification identifies at least one of the storage interfaces and at least one storage device coupled to the identified storage interface.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the storage volume access parameter identifies a group of Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs).

14. A method comprising:

manually determining a plurality of host bus adapter channels required to meet a list of storage interface requirements, including computing how many host bus adapter channels are needed and associated bandwidths;

manually computing a respective plurality of operational parameters for each of the host bus adapter channels;

manually identifying a plurality of storage interfaces to implement the determined number of host bus adapter channels;

programmatically computing mode information to configure the storage interfaces according to the respective pluralities of operational parameters;

configuring and operating the storage interfaces in accordance with the respective pluralities of operational parameters;

and wherein the storage interfaces are accessible by a plurality of processes executing on a plurality of physical partitions of a physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessor, each physical partition comprising links between processors of the physically partitionable symmetric multiprocessor, the links being programmatically configurable to selectively isolate subsets of the processors with respect to respective shared memory coherency and cache memory coherency transactions.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the list of storage requirements comprises at least one of a security requirement and a quality of service requirement.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the operational parameters comprise at least one of a security parameter and a quality of service parameter.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the security parameter comprises at least one of a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier, an internal zone specification;

and a storage volume access parameter.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the internal zone specification identifies at least one of the storage interfaces and at least one storage device coupled to the identified storage interface.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the storage volume access parameter identifies a group of Logical Unit Numbers (LUNS).

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the storage interfaces are enabled for coupling to a storage device, the storage device being at least one of a disk drive, a tape drive, a tape library, a storage array, a storage switch, a storage director, a storage router, a storage network, and a storage area network (SAN).